UK Says NO arms shipment to Israel through Scotland
A hat tip to Leo Koganei for this. It seems our very non-anti-semitic (yeah, right) British allies draw the line when it comes to helping out Jews, even when they are fighting our enemies for us. It happens that two of our planes carrying missiles for Israel stopped to refuel in Scotland and got the Brits all upset. Does anyone think they would be upset if the missiles were intended for use in Iraq?
This sort of thing is why I say that once Tony Blair is no longer PM, we will no longer be able to count much on Great Britain.
“British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett on Wednesday complained to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the alleged use of a British airport as a “staging post” for a supply of missiles to Israel.
On the sidelines of international talks in Rome, Beckett spoke with Rice and raised the allegations that two US-chartered Airbus A310 cargo planes had stopped for refueling at Prestwick airport, near Glasgow, Scotland, last weekend during a flight to transport GBU28 laser-guided bombs to Israel, a spokesman for Britain’s Foreign Office said.
Britain may make a formal protest to the US if British newspaper reports, which claimed 28 bunker-buster weapons were carried on the aircraft, are substantiated, the foreign secretary said. ”
The excuse given was that hazardous materials regulations may not have been followed. Well, woopiedoo. What a phony load of crap that is.
July 27th, 2006 at 8:21 am
Let me correct that.
You can “count on” the Brits, but you can’t count on us if and when you are shipping 5 tonne bombs through our civilian airports without telling us.
I’d expect that we could count on the USA not to do that.
John
July 27th, 2006 at 9:04 am
A further thought:
How would Washington react if Canada were flying Bunker Busters through JFK without any notice? Yes, I thought so.
John
July 27th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Dude,
You’re website is a little much. I am sure I agree with some of what you say, but I am not a fan of the use of the swastika for anything. But in regards to Steve, check out his latest post on PC history books in Britain and tell me he is an anti-semite. The guy is on our side.
July 27th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
The swastica fits the New Nazis. Never Forget. Remember, Leo? Never Forget.
John, think. The munitions were inert. Would you fly a transport plane with live bombs? No one does. The weapons are always armed at their destination.
Read that article. All that fuss and the excuse was that regulations may not have been followed. Look at all the munitions we moved via the UK so far during the Iraq conflict and no one bitched a word. She even called a simple refueling a ‘Staging Post”. Christ! Come on, buddy. This is more appeasement, plain and simple.
July 27th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Rastaman, are you Jewish?
Answer from Rastaman: Nope. Just a patriotic American who stands up for our allies and smacks them when they go astray. Besides, U be knowin’ Rastafarians lovin’ de Lion Of Judah and follow Jesus and hims teachins?
July 27th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Cool
Keep up da good work!
July 28th, 2006 at 1:33 am
I missed this one. I don’t see what their problem was.
I’m like you, Rastaman, I’m concerned about when Blair is out of office. We need good friends and he has been one most of the time.
July 29th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
I thought Tony Snow said it was just ‘a paperwork snaffu’ and would be corrected. Oops, he was wrong.
August 2nd, 2006 at 12:11 am
Speaking as (what you Americans would call) a Brit, I think we may have a problem once Blair has gone. Blair is wrong about many things in terms of internal policy. The one thing he has got right is to stick by America, but this is based more on his instinct than his political judgement and is not shared by a whole chunk of his party, a lot of whom are proud to call themselves “socialist”. Our media, exemplified by the BBC, is massively biased against Israel, and if it wasn’t for the world of blogging you’d think the whole country was the same.
Having said that, the most likely successor to Blair, Gordon Brown, whilst possibly lacking Blair’s inner conviction with regard to America and the war against Islamic terror, is I think unlikely to change direction. The fuss about the use of a civilian airport for shipping armaments to Israel is unlikely to make much difference to anything, the planes will just switch to a military airbase. and proceed as before.